A conventional way to rank Internet search results is to base the ranking on the number of inbound links to the pages identified by the search. The number of inbound links is used as an indicator of relative value of each search result hit. An exemplary search engine that prioritizes search results using inbound links is the GOOGLE search engine offered by Alphabet, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. (formerly Google, Inc.).
Another common search that may be made is a search of a social media platform, such as the FACEBOOK social media site offered by Facebook, Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif. Search results returned by the FACEBOOK site are limited to the social media platform since information outside the platform is not indexed. Also, the results are ranked based on the user's social graph.
While the foregoing techniques have value in certain situations, there is room for improvement in ranking search results and in delivering other forms of content.